・What`s Yuzen?

It is painting on kimono.

300 years ago, Miyazaki Yuzensai, a Kyoto fan painter, came up with the idea.

The method is to put glue on the outline and then add color to it, called Itome Yuzen.

・My Yuzen

I mainly do wireless Yuzen, which is a type of Yuzen where I paint directly onto the fabric.

I come up with the pattern, create the design, paint it, and do the finishing touches. I do it all.

Once I paint something, it doesn't disappear, so I can't make mistakes.

That's why I practice my brush every day.

・My encounter with Yuzen

I've loved drawing since I was little.

When I was a student, my mother told me, "If you learn art, you will live stronger (mentally)."

My mother also loved kimonos, and she told me, "I think hand-painted Yuzen suits you."

That's how I met Yuzen.

After graduating from university, I found a master and trained for seven years.

My job at first was to wash the teacher's tools, I drew sketches, and one of them allowed me to draw a part of a kimono.

Seven years later, I became independent and started working as a wholesaler and kimono shop.

I've been doing Yuzen for 40 years.

I try not to go a day without a brush.

・What I'm doing now

Currently, in addition to my work, I teach Yuzen classes, I have also classes for foreigners at the embassy.

Foreigners genuinely enjoy Yuzen.

And I learn a lot from them.

・My future

Unlike the days when all Japanese people wore kimonos, few people wear kimonos today.

There are fewer opportunities to draw on kimonos, but I am still asked by tea ceremony teachers and others to create unique kimono patterns, also others than the traditional ones.

I want to spread the beauty of Yuzen to the world. I love drawing flowers the most.

I want to practice and study more, and draw beautiful Yuzen.